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Gemma Files

Kissing Carrion: Stories Audio CD – Unabridged, November 8, 2022

by Gemma Files (Author)

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The first horror story collection from the author of Experimental Film, "one of the most powerful and unique voices in weird fiction today" (Paul Tremblay, award-winning author of A Head Full of Ghosts).

These seventeen tales take listeners into the uniquely twisted mind of "one of Canada's most promising new horror writers" (Publishers Weekly). From a live necrophilia show starring reanimated corpses to a confrontation between a security guard and inhuman squatters, from who can be found at an all-night laundromat to what lies in wait at the bottom of the sea, from undead addictions to all-consuming obsessions, Kissing Carrion is "a journey through some of the most beautifully rendered visions of darkness and death to be published this past year.

Print length

1 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Blackstone Publishing
Publication date

November 8, 2022
ISBN-13

979-8212333641
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Editorial Reviews

Review

The recent republication of Gemma Files's first two collections of short fiction, Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, was a reminder of how long and how well she has been writing.

-- "Locus, praise for the author"

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0B9QRKM7Y
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (November 8, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8212333641
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.82 ounces

Customer Reviews:
35 ratings

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Gemma Files

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Born April 4, 1968, in London, England, Gemma Files is the child of two actors (Elva Mai Hoover and Gary Files), and has lived most of her life in Toronto, Canada. Previously best-known as a film critic, teacher and screenwriter, she first broke onto the horror scene when her short story "The Emperor's Old Bones" won the International Horror Guild's 1999 award for Best Short Fiction. Her current bibliography includes two collections of short work (Kissing Carrion and The Worm in Every Heart, both Prime Books) and two chapbooks of poetry (Bent Under Night, from Sinnersphere Productions, and Dust Radio, from Kelp Queen Press). Her first novel, A Book of Tongues: Volume One in the Hexslinger Series (CZP), was published in April 2010. The trilogy is now complete, including sequels A Rope of Thorns (2011) and A Tree of Bones (2012), and she is hard at work on her first stand-alone novel. Files is married to fellow author Stephen J. Barringer, with whom she co-wrote the story "each thing i show you is a piece of my death" for Clockwork Phoenix 2 (Norilana Books). They have one son.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

35 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		21%
3 star		18%
2 star		5%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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TheDarkRoom

Middling collection of nihilistic horror.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 7, 2016

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I have incredibly mixed feelings about this one. Gemma Files' first short story collection has some good ideas, interesting characters, and great writing, but most of the stories were simply missing that special spark, that little oomph that would help it leave an impact. It didn't help that a lot of the stories felt like sketches rather than fully fleshed out stories, and some were incredibly difficult to grasp. I can forgive a lot of this, especially since this is her early work, and there are some incredible stories in here, my favorite still being "Bear-Shirt," a twisted gay love story if there ever was one, but surprisingly the other major story that stuck out in my mind was another one with gay themes, "Torch Song," about the dark, twisted permutations of Aphrodite's love. Other stories such as "Kissing Carrion", "Skeleton Bitch", "Keepsake", and "Pretend That We're Dead" are well-written, but feel far too beholden to the Brite-Koja school of dispossessed, artsy, goth protagonists to the point that it feels like posturing. That ended up being a major problem for me with the entire collection, the whole thing felt entirely too much like a young person trying desperately too hard to write in the milieu of dispossessed kids and young adults that other writers had covered in a much more honest and realistic way. It's not a bad collection, Gemma has always been a strong prose stylist and that's certainly on display here, I think it just suffers from being early work. Disappointing.

3 people found this helpful

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Hernan

Wonderful book. A must read.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 20, 2018

Verified Purchase

Gemma is so talented you'll be surprised. She's got some Tanith Lee in her. That's a very good thing.

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frumwannabe

A wonderful writer who has received recognition for her work

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 3, 2016

Verified Purchase

I bless the day I discovered a Gemma Files short story. A wonderful writer who has received recognition for her work. The book is one I read over and over.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Just bloody WOW.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2006

Gemma Files, Kissing Carrion (Prime Books, 2003)

I read the first few stories in this collection and liked them, but was wondering, in the back of my head, what it was about this collection that had just about every big-name writer I know spinning their wheels. Then I read "Skeleton [...]."

Holy [...].

The splatterpunks-- oh, excuse me, "writers of extreme horror"-- are a bunch from whom you expect certain things. They write the horror equivalent of hardboiled detective fiction, with all the stylistic qualities you would expect from it. Gemma Files writes a whole different ballgame, and so when you get to the squick, it has that much more of a punch. You know Charlee Jacob, Edward Lee, and that bunch are going to gross you out from the first page. Files seduces you; her stories are more Flannery O'Connor than Robert Devereaux. More to the point, not all of her stories climax in that orgy of disgust and violence that one expects from the splatterpunks, which makes it, when it surfaces in Files' work, even more powerful. Kissing Carrion showcases excellent work both ugly ("Skeleton [...]," especially) and quiet ("Bear-Shirt," for example, is exquisite).

You may love this book, and you may hate it; if you read it, however, you will not emerge from it unchanged. ****

2 people found this helpful

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Tran Bronstein

Horror for people who appreciate real horror

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 19, 2003

I hate horror. I never read the stuff and I read this anthology in one sitting. That's how good it is.
Gemma Files knows what makes a good horror story. Horror is the only genre in which a hero is not rewarded for his insight and change. Instead, he pays a dear price for his newfound knowledge. In the most unpleasant, visceral and terrifying manner possible. Kind of like real life. The irony of horror is that in many ways this unreal genre of storytelling is also one of the most realistic.
Gemma Files knows this. Her writing is deep, insightful, meaningful. Often, the first few lines or paragraphs offer some of the greatest insights I've ever read and the story's just started! Trust me, there's usually more by the end of each of her twisted tales.
The most horrific monsters are always human. Gemma Files also knows this. Nothing a vampire or a werewolf or a Jason or a Freddy Kreuger can do compares to the horrors a human has, can and will do. Just read "Keepsake" and "Mouthful of Pins" for confirmation of this.
Love is terrifying. It scares the hell out of people. Of course, if love is terrifying then sex is truly horrific. And mean. And nasty. Conversely well-done horror is absolutely sexy. Gemma Files also knows this. The titular opener, "Kissing Carrion," sets the pace with a nice little romance about a man looking for his one true love. He also happens to be a necrophiliac. Ah, true love.
Gemma's strength is her ability to extract the absolute horror from love and its lesser sibling obsession as demonstrated in "Keepsake," in which a woman adoringly takes care of her sick younger brother only to find that there are some diseases which have absolutely no cure; "Rose-Sick," which will make you think twice about eternal love; "Torch Song," in which a love spell goes horribly awry.
She also respectfully pays homage and lends her own unique interpretation to such classic staples of horror as the haunted mansion in "Folly" and a great take on werewolves in "Skin City." "Seen" boasts one of the most unique serial killer slaying devices of all time. Eat your heart out, Jason with your cheap machete and Freddy with your overgrown Press-On fingernails!
I hate horror. But I loved "Kissing Carrion." I can only imagine that someone who actually likes horror will thoroughly enjoy her anthology.

12 people found this helpful

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AmazonSingh-81

Creepy...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 21, 2006

As a student of Gemma's, I was eager to read something from her short story collection. I'm not really a big horror fan but like to think I'm open to reading almost anything that's supernatural.

However, the supernatural side of Gemma's writing seems to be secondary as she really delves deep into the psyches of her characters and in a very realistic and gutteral way. She has a cerebral style to her horror writing and its very effective.

So give Kissing Carrion a shot. It's perverse, crude and gross but also very well-written, honest and remarkably creative.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Ray Cluley

Kissing Carrion

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 11, 2013

Verified Purchase

I've recommended Files to plenty of people, and now I've started her collection Kissing Carrion I'm doing it again - it's brilliant. Her stories are dark sharp things that sting going in and leave the reader with scars worth keeping secret so others will suffer the same pleasure, which is why I won't do a run down of each one. You should read it if you haven't already. If you have, read it again.

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Kissing Carrion: Stories Audio CD – Unabridged, November 8, 2022

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